World News - 5 Palestinians killed by Israeli army in W. Bank 50 wounded, 15 captured in Israel’s biggest military sweep in months

Israeli troops on Thursday killed five Palestinians, including a top militant who said just a day earlier that he would never be caught, in Israel’s largest military sweep since pulling out from the Gaza Strip last summer.Three of the dead were gunmen from the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades — a violent offshoot of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah Party — killed during a shootout in their hide-out in the Balata refugee camp in the West Bank.The deaths brought to eight the number of Palestinians killed by army fire since the Balata sweep began Monday. More than 50 have been wounded by live rounds and rubber-coated steel pellets, Palestinian hospital officials said. The military said 15 fugitives have been arrested. Dozens of jeeps patrolled Balata, an Al Aqsa stronghold and a haven for weapons dealers, and sealed it off from the adjacent city of Nablus. Al Aqsa fugitives have been moving from hideout to hideout since the army raid began.... http://www.msnbc.msn.com

THERE were so many reasons not to kill Atwar Bahjat. She was half Sunni, half Shia, a woman, an Iraqi, 30 years old, a native of Samarra and a renowned journalist for the Dubai-based al-Arabiya news channel. Yet kill her they did. They shot her to death on a dusty road six miles north of her home town as she reported on the bomb that wrecked Samarra’s sacred Shia shrine on Wednesday. She died with two colleagues — early victims in a frenzy of revenge killings that has dragged Iraq to the brink of civil war. Being half Shia was not enough to save her. For three years the fragile truce between Iraq’s once-dominant Sunni minority and long-oppressed Shia majority had held in the face of suicide bombs in market places, car bombs outside police stations and corpses found in ditches. That truce is now at breaking point. Across Baghdad and other cities Shia death squads have been tracking down and butchering Sunnis. Scores of Sunni mosques have been attacked, ...http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2056276,00.html

Nearly 60 percent of Americans are concerned about bird flu, but fewer than one-third think it will show up in the United States this year, according to a new poll. The survey also found that blacks tend to be more worried than whites, and that most people would hole up if human outbreaks erupt. The Harvard School of Public Health telephone survey asked a series of "What if" questions of 1,043 adults. It's the first public, in-depth survey to ask Americans what they know about bird flu and how they might respond if the virus evolves to spread among people, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The results show that U.S. bird flu outbreaks could have severe economic effects. ...http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1655618

The Philippine army says it has thwarted an attempt by soldiers to overthrow the president, Gloria Arroyo, and form a military government. Several commanders of elite units have been accused over the plot. Security was tightened this week amid rumours of a coup timed to coincide with the anniversary of a 1986 revolt against President Ferdinand Marcos. The army says the coup plotters had planned to speak out against Mrs Arroyo at an opposition rally on Friday. The police has withdrawn permits for all planned demonstrations and all schools in the country have been shut. Checkpoints have reportedly been erected around the capital, Manila, and soldiers have been sent to strengthen security around the presidential palace. Rumours of unrest are common in the Philippines, which has seen a dozen coup attempts in the last 20 years, says the BBC's Manila correspondent Sarah Toms. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4745716.stm

Amnesty International today revealed how irresponsible military aid and arms supplies to Nepal from countries including the United States, India and the United Kingdom, have facilitated the killing, torture and abduction or "disappearance" of thousands of civilians. The organisation called on these governments and others -- including Belgium and South Africa which have recently supplied military assistance and France, which supplies crucial components for helicopters assembled and delivered by India -- not to resume military assistance or arms supplies destined for Nepal until the security forces can demonstrate that they will uphold human rights. A new report from the organization outlines the case for the suspension of all transfers of arms and related logistical and security supplies to Nepal that can be used to commit grave human rights violations. ...http://southasia.oneworld.net/article/view/113423/1/

More than 25 million Americans turned to the nation's largest network of food banks, soup kitchens and shelters for meals last year, up 9 percent from 2001.Those seeking food included 9 million children and nearly 3 million senior citizens, says a report from America's Second Harvest."The face of hunger doesn't have a particular color, and it doesn't come from a particular neighborhood," said Ertharin Cousin, executive vice president of the group. "They are your neighbors, they are working Americans, they are senior citizens who have worked their entire lives, and they are children."...http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/23/AR2006022300062_pf.html